Gov. Tony Evers said conversations about sending taxpayers some of the state’s projected surplus — which is approaching $3 billion — are “not moving very fast.”

“Would I be happy about that? Yes. But I just think with the campaign going on I’m not sure it would happen,” Evers said yesterday during a stop at Madison’s Emerson Elementary School.

Joint Finance Committee Co-chair Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said after a committee hearing Tuesday nothing has changed in the last few months that would pave the way for the $1.8 billion package to be signed into law.

Lawmakers met for a special session in May to vote on a $1.8 billion deal negotiated by Evers and Republican legislative leaders. But the bill failed in the Senate after three Republicans and all 15 minority Dems voted against it.

Asked about bringing Democratic lawmakers on board, Evers said he talks “occasionally” with Dem leaders but that they had not indicated interest. 

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau pegged the projected surplus at around $2.5 billion at the time. Last week, the Department of Revenue announced tax collections for 2025-26 came in $450.8 million higher than what was expected. The agency this fall will do a final look at expenditures during the fiscal year and departmental revenues that could push the projected surplus at the end of the 2025-27 biennium to $3 billion.

Several GOP lawmakers over the past week have called for a renewed effort to send some of the money back to taxpayers. 

Following Tuesday’s committee hearing, Co-chair Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, and in a tough reelection race, said in a brief interview that his preference “is to get that money out.”

But he deferred to departing Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu on whether there should be a renewed effort. The Oostburg Republican’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Born noted in a separate interview that the Assembly passed the $1.8 billion bill and the Senate could just come back to take up that bill.

He sought to pin the blame for the legislation’s failure on Dems, while the governor this morning again attributed the legislation falling short in the Senate to GOP gubernatorial nominee Tom Tiffany, who was critical of the package before the vote.

“Until Democrats are willing to return the money to taxpayers instead of sitting on it so they can grow government, it’s probably the status quo,” Born said. “I mean nothing has really changed since a few months ago, right?”

Evers also said he was open to calling a special session to pass a bill limiting the use of Flock cameras but that he did not know if such legislation had sufficient support.

“All I know is people are running for office, and I’m not one of them,” Evers said. “If the leadership said, ‘yes, we want to do this,’ hell yes, we’ll do it, but we want to make sure everybody’s behind it, and I’m not sure we’re there yet.”

Some municipalities have moved to pare back their use amid public outcry and reports of police officers misusing the cameras.

Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley, the Dem gubernatorial nominee, on Tuesday directed the county departments and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office to limit Flock camera operations on county property and adopt transparency standards. And Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson issued a directive Monday limiting the number of officers and the types of crimes for which the cameras could be used.